This was our third stay at Sofitel Moorea Ia Ora. Even though through the years we have discovered many great romantic and family vacation hotels worldwide this island and this hotel one remains our favorite place for a relaxing vacation. The Valentines Day provided a good excuse to get out from the chilly Seattle and revisit the place we spent out honeymoon at, albeit again with kids. It was the first time I was staying at Sofitel Moorea as Platinum member as previously I used to take advantage of 10-15% cheaper rates available though online travel agents with coupons or deals.

Getting there: Moorea is an island close to Tahiti reachable by ferry (30-40 minutes ride) from Papeete ferry terminal or by plane from Faaa International Airport (PPT) airport with Air Tahiti (domestic airline of French Polynesia). Taxis from Moorea ferry dock to Sofitel Moorea cost 1500 CFP (as of February 2018). If you arrive by ferry, you may want to buy some local fresh fruits (I recommend Moorea pineapples) at the ferry dock prior to taking a taxi.

Check In

Room

Our Beachfront bungalow (#423) was in located on the beach almost at the end of the resort offering more seclusion and quietness plus an unobstructed view of the lagoon and the island of Tahiti across the strait. The bungalow was spacious (we stayed in a similar one before so we knew what we are getting), very clean, with a large bathroom, bedroom, dresser, and veranda. Housekeeping during our stay was consistently excellent. They not just cleaned the inside and replaced linen, bathing supplies, etc., but also made sure to sweep all sand from the veranda as well.

In-room gift: We had a great in-room welcome gift prepared for us on arrival. All fruits were fresh and the champaigne was really good! There was also a welcome letter from the resort manager, which you can use towards getting welcome drinks at the Vue bar (though they would not return that letter back to you). The hotel is not using welcome drink paper coupons like all other Sofitels we have visited. 

Location

The resort enjoys a very convenient location (just 5 minutes ride from the ferry dock and the airport) with a beautiful view of Tahiti island and has the most picturesque beach on the island. The resort grounds are very beautiful with many palm trees, flowers, plants and tiki statues. Everything is well maintained, though perhaps mosquito spraying is not as frequent as needed to avoid getting bites during evenings. Some of the hammocks on the beach need attention as well as they are not in a good shape.

Dining

The resort has two restaurants: K (fine dining) and Pure (everyday dining). We booked a table at K restaurant for Valentine's Day dinner several days prior to our trip. They had a 5-course set menu on that day. Since we have memories from our honeymoon visit having a dinner at K on the beach close to the water, at the time of booking I made a special request to get the table closest to the water. They confirmed over email that this request will be passed to the restaurant. At the check in I asked them to reconfirm that this request was passed to the restaurant and they said it was and not to worry. We booked a nanny via the resort and went to the restaurant a few minutes early. Upon arrival we were shown the table closest to the entry located as far away from the water/beach as it gets. All other tables were already occupied. So, that special part of the idea got ruined. The food and service during the meal were very efficient though and everything tasted good. Sommelier service was good as well.

Since we really wanted to relive those moments from our honeymoon on the next few days we went to dine at Vue (the bar with some tables offering a view of the strait between Tahiti and Moorea) which had a food menu from Pure restaurant. On day two we approached an unoccupied table with a view of the water and set down only to be approached by a waiter telling us that the table was reserved. He moved us to an adjacent table with leftovers from previous customers still being on the table. He removed those, cleaned the table and did not come with a menu. Thirty minutes later I stood up, approached another waiter, explained that we have been waiting while all tables near us have been serviced but nobody even brought us the menu. The table that they claimed to have been reserved stayed empty for a while and than several people set down, looked at the menu, and suddenly just left. Anyway, once we asked for service everything went smooth. I highly recommend trying Poisson Cru (raw fish marinated in lime with coconut sauce and green salad) or fish of the day. Fish of the day will not be listed in the menu (there is just no such item there), so do ask what it is. It was great every time we ordered it.

On the next day we called to book a table at Vue with a view of Tahiti island, got a confirmation that we will get one, arrived 30 minutes after the call at the set time, but were told that no tables there are available. My impression is that seating requests are simply ignored despite reassurances that they will accommodate them. The service was flawless during all next visits to Vue though.

We also visited an outside restaurant (Rudy's) for dinner at the recommendation of the concierge and thought Vue/Pure offers pretty great combination of price/quality of food/service in comparison.

Breakfasts: We had breakfasts included in our rate. The breakfasts are served at Pure restaurant every morning until 10:30AM. We found the food offerings as varied and tasty as during our previous visits (read excellent), although it did seem that they did away with offering smoked salmon and fresh squeezed orange and pineapple juices which were previously available along with exotic juices from Rotui (local juice company offering packed juices from concentrate). Also the baguette bread was usually not replenished during the last hour of breakfast service. The service (tea/coffee) was attentive and fast. The restaurant manager dressed in black was very attentive and kept directing staff to help customers whenever he saw someone trying to get their attention.

Check out

Very efficient. They pick up your luggage from the bungalow and bring it to the taxi/shuttle area. The check out was fast and convenient (they even included the cost of the return taxi into the bill saving us from spending all our cash in local currency). We received a complimentary late check out as well as part of the status recognition which was great and very appreciated.

Overall

I stayed at Hilton Moorea many years ago and this time I tried Sofitel for a change in scenery. I was not overly impressed by Sofitel so next time will be back to Hilton or simply fly straight to Bora Bora which we have done on occasion in the past.  Admittedly Moorea is cheaper than BB but the price difference is not enough to warrant the drop off in experience in my humble opinion.  One partially redeeming feature at this Sofitel was the ability to use the Accor Plus free night but I still had the feeling of overpaying for what we had.  This hotel should probably not be branded as a Sofitel. 

Room

There are 7 room types at Sofitel, the first 3 are on land, and the top 4 are overwater.  I booked the lowest overwater room so 4th room type out of the 7.  I did not receive any Accor Diamond upgrade at all and if I did not enquire at check-in they were not going to comment on it either.  In their defense there was no room type continuously available all days of our stay (but different room types available 1 or 2 days only); some hotels nonetheless make more of an effort when a Diamond guest is coming, at the very least they could have given us one of the best rooms within in our room category (location on the resort) but they did not which is entirely their own doing because they don’t assign room types until the morning of arrival so there is no planning done.  After discussion at check-in they said they would move us to a better room (+1 upgrade) for the last 2 days of our 7-night stay and once again we could not know specifically which room was going to be ours until the morning of the change.  It’s very hard to have a stay with good value for the money in such circumstances especially since the upgraded room was not even worth the hassle of moving, in retrospect. 

The (standard) overwater villa was decent.  I liked the glass floor and our daughter enjoyed watching fish there.  Parts of the room were up to Sofitel standards particularly the bathroom, but some other aspects were completely outdated like the ceiling fan which was pretty much useless (too slow) and the control looked like a 30-year-old half-destroyed box, compounded by the fact that AC was weak even if we put it at lowest temperature possible so we could not sleep very well. 

The luxury overwater villa was a bit larger than the first one, but considering what’s advertised on the website (31 sqm vs 52 sqm) I could not believe our second room was two thirds bigger – no way.  Perhaps they had some questionable and creative accounting such as counting the wood platform outdoors on the way out to the water. 

I thought the biggest difference was not the room type, but for me the best rooms were those farther away from land, and the overwater villas outwards looking rather than the villas looking inwards which have a view of other villas.  The privacy was inexistent from our first room but marginally better from our second room especially if lying down rather than standing up on the balcony. 

Not Sofitel Standards

The hotel grounds looked great and natural beauty was the strong point here.  The beach was ok although too many big rocks – not fine sand.  The main reason the hotel should not be a Sofitel brand hotel in my opinion was not related to the room itself but rather a collection of other factors.  For example there was no fitness gym.  I realize it’s a resort, but I cannot recall the last time we ever had a hotel of this level without a gym, resort or not.  There were also some other minor issues giving a feeling of penny pinching like breakfast ending at 10am on week days (it’s a resort to relax, not a city hotel where people go to work early morning), they originally refused to serve side dishes with our room service order despite the menu clearly stating it’s included, the room service delivery fee being from memory the highest I have ever seen anywhere (15 USD), the website advertised Hermes bathroom toiletries but instead we got cheap local stuff, etc.

Dining

Breakfast was ok and service in the restaurant was decent unlike in some other parts of the hotel (more on that later). There was very limited variety from one day to the other so on a longer stay it tended to be repetitive.  Some of the food quality was questionable such as very dry bread which must come from a cheap external bakery and not fresh, and I am not sure what was in their carrots but there are so many flies in there on multiple mornings. 

Service

One key issue at the hotel was that some staff at the hotel were missing the “can do” attitude that 5-star hotels should have especially for Sofitel brand.  One key example was regarding drinking water.  My wife is partially breastfeeding so she needs to drink a lot, and we also partially use baby formula so we need bottled water for that as well.  The lack of fitness gym ended up being a problem in more ways than one because not only we could not exercise, but not having a water fountain available for refills was problematic.  We went to the spa instead but were told it was independently owned so we were not actually welcome to use their water dispenser.  At front desk instead of telling us no problem we will give water, they told us that they only had limited water for staff and that they were not going to get a refill of their dispenser machine for a few days, then they reluctantly gave us a bit of water.  It was typical of some staff reaction at the hotel: pointing out the problems, not solutions.  The hotel provided free mini-bar including 2 beers daily which was a nice perk, and of course, water.  However housekeeping in the morning refused to give us more than 2 bottles despite seeing we had a baby.  I have never been refused water by housekeeping anywhere in the world.  Thankfully different housekeeping staff in the evening gave us what we needed at turndown service without the stinginess of the morning staff.  Overall, it was an unpleasant situation about something as basic as water, which would not even be acceptable at a Novotel, let alone a Sofitel.  

Unfortunately it was not the only disappointing aspect of service.  I went to reception perhaps 5-6 times in a span of many days to redeem Diamond dining vouchers.  They were only successful in redeeming 4/10 vouchers one day, then a few days later another 4/10, leaving 2/10 more to redeem.  Instead of taking the bull by the horns and fixing the problem, the pervasive attitude at this hotel kept being to ask me to call Accor customer service, rather than calling customer service themselves.  At check-out they also refused to attempt to redeem the vouchers after I left.  Upon departure nobody ever came to pick up our luggage despite making the request at a specific time.  Also I received not only incorrect points on my stay, but incorrect night count as well, but thankfully this was fixed a couple of days after I pointed out the error to them. 

Service was not universally weak; as mentioned above in the restaurant it was fine, and also on a couple of mornings I went to the hotel bar to make a phone call at 5am and staff proactively saw me and came to offer a coffee which was a very nice gesture. 

Wifi

Wifi worked well with speed of 15 Mbps but in parts of the restaurant it did not work at all. 

Overall

Next time in Moorea I would rather return to Hilton rather than stay at Sofitel again, or the alternative is to skip Moorea. The problem for Accor loyalists is that the two Sofitels in Bora Bora are currently closed, and same regarding the Sofitel in Tahiti.  This is a shame for such a French-oriented hotel chain, but sadly the better alternatives in the country lie with other hotel chains at the moment.